Heeeeeelllloooooo! Is there anybody out there?!!!!

My brother said to me the other day, "Wow you haven't posted in ages!!" And it's true, I'd believe you if you thought I was never planning to post again it's been so long! In the lead up to this Christmas time I knew I needed a rest. I needed to let my mind rest, if that makes any sense. Totally indulge in family time and eating and drinking without pausing to snap every moment and lose track of time.

Just before Christmas we went on a family holiday to the most spectacular mountains. I can't wait to share it all with you but it would have all been too rushed in the week of Christmas. It's funny because I thought that I had come back with a different feeling to our summer holiday. That my tired legs from shooping down the slopes had overshadowed that post-holiday relaxing glow that shone out of us all when we landed from Greece. People had said to me and I've said it in the past myself, that a skiing holiday isn't the same sort of relaxing as a beach trip, but it turns out I was much calmer than I thought!

We landed on Sunday 20th to a week of loveliness. A visit to Father Christmas with best friends and Sammy's sweetheart, then a big family party in Oxford, and then it was Christmas Eve! 

It's a strange feeling to consciously stop yourself from blogging. If you are a blogger reading this you will know exactly what I mean. It feels alien, almost frightening. What if no one comes back to read when you finally feel ready and refreshed?! I want to have albums bursting with photos like my mum has of us, but when I really thought about it, those albums don't have 30 pictures of the christmas dinner from every angle, they have one. There isn't endless pictures of us opening our presents, there's the shot of our tradition - laying the stockings in the lounge, and then there's the big family shot. The albums are full of people, smiling faces, piles of excitedly torn wrapping paper. They weren't photos taken for a blog post, they were photos taken for her, for us.

There's one of the Christmas table, eyes under paper hats too big for little heads. There's the tree, the games and cousins all lined up in a row. All the things that are most important to me are there and this year I tried to do the same. The moments I loved. Making pizzas before Grandma and Grandad arrived on Christmas Eve, my favourite new decorations hanging from the mistletoe from the school Christmas fayre. The year Sammy discovered cheesy jokes and thought they were hysterical, making up his own puns for the crackers and the little things that spark so many memories. The kindness of a stranger, well not a stranger but a lovely new friend, who slipped the boys a couple of vintage lorries with a little tree on top as I shopped for my festive flowers. Making our own mini trifles, taking time to lay the table with the ivy from the garden, sprinkling feathers collected from a wonderful new friend all around the house and snapping the most precious moment, cousins feeling their new cousins who we will meet in 2016.

On Christmas Eve, I should have shared a post in collaboration with a fantastic family brand I am representing this year, Slumberdown. They promote all the same values as I hope I do, and in the haze of cleaning the house ready for our Christmas visitors, signing for very last minute deliveries at 2pm, flinging cheese and salami around in the kitchen, racing to the village crib service to light our Christingle candles, then home for a "The Holiday movie" style disco in the living room, I ran out of minutes to open the laptop. The post was all about our Christmas traditions, traditions that when I scrolled through my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds I could see were in almost every house in the land.  

The plates of mince pies, the carrots, the handwritten notes, the Twas the Night Before Christmas bedtime stories. The flour and sugary snow sprinkled lovingly by fireplaces and front doors, little traces of magic and glitter for wondrous eyes in the morning. Everyone was busy making their own beautiful special memories and I realised it was so important to make ours instead of hiding away on a laptop writing about them. So I'm sharing this post, a snap shot of our Christmas, the little things I will remember from 2015.

I couldn't think of a better phrase to describe this festive period for me than conscious uncoupling. It might sound terrible that I needed to practically force myself away from the laptop but I did. Bar a couple of photos a day, and sometimes not even a couple to Instagram, I have taken a wee break from the internet. The holiday was the kickstart I needed to a real family Christmas. My brother and sister in law flew back from America on Christmas Day night and we had 4 days of absolute quality time. We build up my brother's trips back home so much that often we burden ourselves with expectation. I do it so often, build events up in my mind and almost give Rich and the boys, unachievable goals! Nothing is perfect and nothing has to be perfect. Kids will still spill drinks all over your beautiful table display but so what?! The boys will still have a meltdown, even on a day when you can't imagine that they would have anything to argue about. The dinner won't be served on time. Or in my case, even with preprepared veggies and microwavable bread sauce and gravy, you will still sit down an hour and a half behind schedule!

We save the presents under the tree until after the Queen's speech. We always have and always will and this year by the end of the seemingly endless pile from friends and family the boys opened our big present. And do you know what? The reaction was priceless. "Oh ok, a games table..." 

Admittedly it was still in the box, and maybe had it all been made up ready to play they would have been jumping around like the fleas we discovered on the dogs on the 27th! Urgh - I will spare you the details but in 7 years we have never experienced those pesky bugs on the dogs and hopefully never will again, but it taught us a lesson.

It had all got too much. Present opening had become about opening, not about what was inside. So as mean as it may sound, we have returned the table and perhaps in a couple of years will buy it again. 

In these days between Christmas and New Year the boys have played and played. We've sat on the floor with Disney movies in the background, singing along to the Little Mermaid and Aladdin, been splatted with squirty cream whilst playing Pie Face and I have soaked up the memories of watching my brother lie on his tummy making Hot Wheels sets and rolling around with the little nephews and niece. 

We are away in my happy place, down at my family holiday flat in Southbourne with best friends and their boys and tonight we will stand on the balcony with sparklers and mis matched glasses of bubbly and toast the new year and I couldn't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

So I am going to end this year of Me and Mine with all of mine. These are my favourite people, the ones I want to sit and do nothing with, eat cheese at 10 o'clock at night with, people I love who aren't even here yet. Sammy asked us how you know when you love someone the other day. And we turned to each other and said what we have said for years to each other. You know, because when you touch that person, when you brush up against them, when you hug them hello or hug them goodbye, or hug them in the middle of the day for no reason at all, you feel something. In your chest, it makes you feel happy to be next to them, to cuddle up under a blanket. And that feeling that you can't quite describe, is love.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas, an exciting, healthy and adventurous new year. Writing a blog is a privilege and a pleasure, that people want to read about your plans, that I get to record the places we travel to, the people we meet, the things that excite me and the companies I discover. I am so proud of the Me and Mine Project. Years now of family photos I absolutely would not have without the encouragement and camaraderie of my fellow hosts Lucy, Katie, Jenny, Fritha and Alex. 

I can't wait to share in their journeys next year, the new baby joining the Mummy Daddy Me family and share the new additions to my family. A little niece to be born in America and a little niece or nephew due in just 3 weeks! We won't be adding to our brood but we may add to our furry baby brood... my mum bought me a fabulous book for Christmas - a guide to keeping micro pigs! 

Come and share your family photo, and if in the madness of Christmas you missed snapping one, take this post as the perfect excuse and capture one today!

Yes to months that whizz by, especially when it's November! Because you know what that means... Christmas is coming! I adore the lead up to Christmas and it feels that this year everything festive has crept into the last couple of weeks of November.

All my work has been focussed on Christmas styling, updating seasonal imagery, making advent calendars and everywhere you look there's boxes with balloons, wreaths and baubles! I've squeezed in more trips to London than in the whole year into this month and have made some new friends in the online world.

You know when you just click, to the point you can almost hear a clunky sound?! Well that's how I feel. I've found a firm friend and confidante in Katy and it's been lovely to see her so much at press shows and events, to put the world to rights and bounce ideas off each other. 

I feel like I have been welcomed into a new world of blogging, meeting some of my favourite interiors bloggers and stylists and it's made me realise there's so much about the house I haven't shared. I hope you will enjoy some of my makeover and inspiration posts I have planned over the next month, so you can see how we are slowly transforming this old shell.

We spent a rather smelly week with the downstairs toilet soil pipe being open after the cloakroom decorating turned into a more major revamp! It was not pleasant. 

But once the new pipe was fitted, the tiles laid, the beautifully smooth (and I tell you in a very old house smooth walls are an anomaly so I just wanted to stroke the bare plaster!) new plaster painted and the woodwork finished we just couldn't stop standing in the door way for no other reason than to admire it!

As soon as I have hung a mirror and have sourced a few accessories, I will share some photos! It's funny how the smallest room in the house can actually have such an impact. Just off the hallway it's a room that gets seen and used by everyone! There are two other bathrooms in the house that desperately need remodelling but with Christmas approaching they will definitely have to wait at least until next year, if not the year after. 

For those who know me well, know I am not the most patient person. Once I have a vision I steam roll ahead, but with a house you can't do that, unless you win the lottery of course! But the more you have to wait, the more you appreciate what gets done. We have lusted after Fired Earth tiles for a long time, so to finally see them laid in our house felt like a major achievement! And that is in no way an advert, I just thought you might like to see!

We started November with my sister's birthday, and I joked with her that we all just assumed we would spend the weekend together. No real discussion just that on very special occasions we love just being in the same room. We FaceTime at least 4 times a week, just a quick 10 minute hello and catch up on our days, it's nice to see her face. Her bump is growing at a rate of knots whilst the rest of her has barely changed. We are all wildly debating what the baby might be, will it be another girl, will she look just like Yazzy, or will they have a son?! I looked through all my baby boy boxes of clothes that I have been saving just in case and would so love to see them worn again, but I know how much we treasure being sisters so it would be just perfect for Yasmin to experience what we have. 

We've started planning her hare themed baby shower, Yazzy nicknamed the baby "the baby rabbit" at the first scan and it's just stuck. And it's one of those things that suddenly everywhere we all go we see rabbits! On cushions, on prints, on clothing! 

We also had exciting news from across the pond. My brother Patrick and my sister in law Carlotta announced they were having a little girl! We had kept the secret for a short while and the boys are so excited to have another girlie in the family. Two boys, two girls and one surprise to come!

I packed up a box of goodies, a British baby magazine, a Dada book that ironically I had bought when we visited them in the summer and they first told us they were pregnant, and lots of lovely creams and potions for Carlotta which my mum took over for Thanksgiving.

They are flying back on Christmas Day this year and we will have a second Christmas on Boxing Day. It's amazing to see her little face on the scan, her profile so clear. It's almost impossible for me not to buy pink things...

Our feet aren't going to touch the ground next month, the school fayre last week signalled the start of the Christmas parties and we are counting down the days until we fly off with Mark Warner Holidays to take the boys on their first ever skiing holiday (They still don't know so I am devising a surprise to tell them!). 

I just can't wait to see them in the snow!!!! It's going to be a magical trip and we feel so lucky.

This weekend we braved the Great British weather and headed to Southbourne with lovely friends and their baby. We got blasted by the sea breeze on the beach, wrapped up the three boys and went to a couple of play parks. Nothing fancy, just a chance to be together. There's nothing quite like going away with real old friends, people who you can wear your pjs with, with no make up on and all crash out at 10pm exhausted from being woken up by children all night! There's no pretence, just a sense of contentment. 

We managed to snap this photo just before it was dark last night, and I will always be grateful for this Me and Mine Project, because without it I wouldn't have a photo of the four of us this month. A record of the chipboard haircuts, the small boys in tartan, with gappy grins.

I'd love for you to get to know them a little better, they are such a big part of this blog, even if you don't always see them so next month I thought a little family video interview might be fun! 

Come and join in with us and share your family photo for November. This month I want to send you to Lucy at Dear Beautiful who has a special small person in their family photos. Their littlest made her Me and Mine debut last month and our Me and Mine gang have a couple of others to come as well. Fritha - we are all so excited and Katie has a blue one joining her pink tribe next year! 

I love the countdown to the end of October, the flashes of sunshine fooling you that you can still wear flip flops one minute and winter boots the next, and the 1st of November is always a happy day - it's my sister's birthday!

I feel like we've squeezed more into this past month than ever before. Every second of October has been jam packed with trips with friends, catch ups, walks on the beach, play dates at the park, school performances, parent's teas, house updates, decorators, plumbers, plasterers, more train bookings than I've made in my life up to the big smoke, new babies and a visit from a small pink one.

We've all tried our best, put 100% into moving at 100 miles an hour and half term came just at the right time, before we all collapsed in a heap! The boys have been desperate for a break from the school run. We leave the house at (or we aim to leave the house) at 7.50am and once the dreaded clocks went back, it now feels like we are heading off before the sun rises. All they really wanted this half term was to play. Play with grandparents, play with their cousin and root around in the playroom rediscovering toys that have been overlooked in amongst the homework, the after school club routine and busy weekends away.

We've all been on a hamster wheel, the boys have embraced everything the new school has thrown at them, violin lessons, tennis, swimming and Ollie has suddenly blossomed into this beautiful wide-eyed sponge, soaking up every new experience, reading books with words in "Mama - look it has lots of words!" and walking past road signs, stopping to spell out the letters "Rrr-oooo-aaa-dd cc-lll-ooo-ss-ee-d, road closed Mama." We are just watching in complete awe. He is suddenly writing with confidence, and told me off the other day for my 'h' which was lacking the cursive flick at the end. He's growing more like his confident, show man older brother and these two floppy haired boys are testing our patience less and delighting us more.

That must sound strange to say, but over the summer we really struggled with temper tantrums, answering back and attitude that gave a worrying flash of what their teenage years might be like! But over the past month, with a definite influence from school and new friends, they have both calmed down, they are speaking more eloquently and are generally showing us how wonderful life is when everyone is contented. No arguing, no stamping feet. More of that please!

October has been about focus, we've juggled an extraordinary amount of work commitments, had more than a few 1.30am finishes and we both have made conscious choices about where we want our businesses to head. Rich is doing remarkable things with the tea business and I've had a bit of a soul searching month. I've realised where my strengths lie and where they certainly don't. I've been firmer with myself, saying no more often than ever, and made a big step towards my big dream for this blog. I met with a very talented man Reuben who understood me in 5 minutes and is going to help me make some big changes to the look and feel of this blog and finally get my product photography business online!

I blasted him my wish list, my ambitions, talked about people I admire in the blogging arena and my constant struggle to concentrate on one thing. And luckily he doesn't think I need to either! It's ok to wear many hats if they all point you in the same direction. I want to be able to write about the house, the boys, places we have travelled to and this month I am going to try and get more comfortable in front of the camera. I loved sharing a podcast last year but for some silly reason I let it drift. But maybe there's a way of being a little less camera shy (That sounds stupid but check out my daily feed - you have to scroll for weeks before you see me) - I'm plotting.

Over the next few days I am combining work and pleasure. That's the funny thing about blogging, there's no real break. You could be online every minute of the day, and share every intimate moment, every holiday, there's no real downtime. I look at bloggers with babies and there's no maternity leave as a blogger. The blog must go on! In a way it's become normal now, sharing a photo to Instagram first thing in the morning, making sure I photograph the rooms we are decorating for a before and after post and borrow my family as models for product photography! This weekend it's Granny and Grandad Bo's turn to be my props. I am photographing new images for the Wallace and Gromit The Grand Appeal charity "Big Bake" campaign which happens in December. We have chefs hats, flour and cupcakes to make!

Life and work have intertwined. 

But I don't see it as a bad thing, I have felt luckier than ever this month with the opportunities we have as a family, we took the boys to the regional shopping centre at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and I felt proud as punch to see all my photos around The Grand Appeal store. This weekend I am rather worryingly modelling some gorgeous clothing for Joules for something exciting which I will share next week and all week we have been planning a surprise trip away with a company I love in 8 weeks that the boys are going to go nuts about. Blogging has led to some amazing collaborations, creative campaigns and long lasting relationships with brands I have loved for years. I've found a new confidence to approach companies I respect and would love to introduce my audience to and have had the pleasure to share my blogging story and hopefully help others with some hints and tips at a couple of events with Tots100. I have my final part of my growing and developing your Instagram style and following series on Monday and will be sharing my session from the food photography workshop with River Cottage towards the end of the week. 

I was completely spoilt this month with a night away with the team from Graham and Brown, swapping a drafty room with no carpet for 5* luxury at the Northcote Hotel and a fantastic behind the scenes tour of their factory, a wonderful afternoon with Etsy learning the art of brush lettering with a firm blogging friend I have made over the last few months Teri, and chatted all things home and interiors over afternoon tea with Farrow and Ball with some wildly talented writers and bloggers. Spoilt rotten. 

I have so many photos to share with you - this blog is going to be full of colour and inspiration in November!

On Monday I'm meeting with a London PR agency and one of the biggest international beauty clients imaginable to discuss a very exciting event. I'll share more when I can but fear not I shan't be in front of the camera! Trips to London have become a weekly occurrence and it suddenly doesn't feel like such a momentous journey zipping on the train from Gillingham and home again. 

I'm still just about managing to juggle my consultancy role in the development industry - flicking a switch some days and heading to meetings with house builders in traditional workwear, all suited and booted. It's like I am in a different world but I like it.

We had my little niece Yasmin to stay for 3 nights last week and I couldn't have adored my time with her more. We slipped into life as a 5 and I can't thank my sister and brother in law enough for trusting us with their most precious person. My sister was on bed rest with SPD that she has developed through her second pregnancy and we got to cement our tight bond all over again. She was so happy, so grateful to join me on the school run, she was an absolute joy. Her infectious enthusiasm for the world touches everyone she meets. Strangers stopped me in the street to tell me how beautiful she was, how polite and I honestly feel I have the best of every world being able to borrow her.

Our little spare room has firmly become "Yazzy's room" and I am planning a sweet makeover before Christmas - a total excuse to decorate with pink and pretty bunting even though we have 2 boys! I love being a mother of sons and having Yasmin to stay gave me a chance to totally indulge both our girly sides. She loves all things sparkly, frilly dresses, playing traditional games like tea parties and we spent hours at Auntie's dolls house that the boys enjoyed when they were younger. I dress my boys in pink, they've had dollies in the past, Sammy adored a pushchair we found in a charity shop when he was a toddler and I've never pushed them towards stereotypical 'boys toys', but naturally both the Heath brothers and Yasmin are drawn to different things. And that's fine by me. 

I did nothing but spoil her with attention for almost 4 days and it was the break from work I needed. It was full on, but the most fun full on I could think of. Neither of us wanted her to leave when they came to collect her! She even said over and over "No I don't want to go home, stay at Auntie's!" I love her like she's my own and when she left I felt quite empty, the house seemed so quiet without a bustling toddler haring around.

We sat down and just watched our pair of brothers for a few moments, happily colouring at the table, chatting to each other, playing together, encouraging each other, complimenting each other on a particularly well drawn monster, and we said wow - they are just so easy now. Of course it's not like that all the time but suddenly we've moved into a new phase. Almost overnight they have the independence they crave, instead of pushing boundaries, they stay up a little later at the weekend and we can enjoy a meal at a more grown up meal time, and talk all through dinner, with these mini people we have made.

We've had tradesmen in the house all week like Piccadilly Circus at the front door and each one has seen how they respect the house. All the little touches, the vases of flowers that live on the coffee table, the white walls, the nice accessories and cushions we work hard to afford. And although Yasmin is just the same, growing up being taught to respect the homes we live in, at 4 and 6 our boys are showing a real appreciation for how tough it is to work so hard. The value of things and pride in what Rich and I do.

And we are so proud of these two.

We left for a Halloween weekend away in the South East late last night and I suddenly realised that of all the hundreds of photos on the camera roll and laptop, there wasn't one of us four. A Me and Mine fail! So just before the car was packed to the brim with party bits and birthday presents for my sister, we dived into the hallway and snapped our reflection in the little hanging mirror.

And that will have to do this month and actually I feel it's quite fitting. It's been a whirlwind month, we've had time as a family and just enjoyed it without photos. I have to force myself to leave the camera at home or in my pocket but I am learning that not everything needs a photo, it's ok to be in the moment. So our family portrait this month is just one piece of a busy jigsaw of lovely friends, simple days out, celebrations and everything that life can throw at us.

Tonight we are having a Halloween party with Yasmin - just fun nothing scary. The boys love any excuse to dress up, play games and eat treats! We are going to snuggle under a duvet watch a film and then start it all again the next day for a 32nd family party complete with pass the parcel and party bags! I will never believe you are too old for party bags ;)

This week we were sent some treats from Slumberdown and the most divine silky new duvet which I can't wait to get home to on Monday night. It has the most luxurious striped finish - you almost don't want to hide it with a quilt cover. The boys road tested it and it passes their cosy test! We have always struggled in the past that their duvets seem to fall off them in the night and they've woken feeling cold and unsettled, but this duvet has been developed with a hollow fibre filling that wraps around your body so the whole thing moves with you in the night. I predict they are going to want to sleep with us every night! And after our mini Halloween play shoot the dogs didn't want to jump off either - naughty pups. We've spent the last 2 weeks redecorating the guest room and as it's so lovely we are going to take our new duvet and move in there! 

So wherever you are tonight, whether you celebrate Halloween or not, happy end of October. We have planned our calendar out right up until to new year now, it's just as busy as the last few weeks and we are going to embrace every second of it. The boys are already practising for the big school nativity show, we have long overdue catch ups with best pals away planned and I am working on lots of festive content for lovely clients.

How lucky am I?! Pop over and see my latest family craft ideas for Center Parcs if you are looking for a last minute idea today, my favourite has to be the Woodland Pumpkins... 

Join us and share your month and family photo, I can't wait to see them all. Then head over to Let's Talk Mommy and Jenny's award winning blog! I wish I lived closer to Jenny, she's one of the people I've been lucky to meet through blogging who I could talk for hours with, without stopping for breath!